Sometimes my greatest challenge was just getting out of bed; compared to that, winning a gold medal was pretty easy, says Olympic swimming champion From winning 23 gold medals and setting 39 world records to battling a strong urge to end his life, Olympic champion Michael Phelps has come a …
Read More »Daily Archives: November 16, 2018
Ice age crater discovered beneath Greenland glacier
Buried beneath a kilometre of snow and ice in northern Greenland, scientists have uncovered an asteroid impact crater, bigger than the area of Paris. This is the first time that a crater of any size has been found under one of Earth’s continental ice sheets, said researchers from the University …
Read More »‘Super-Earth’ found orbiting Sun’s nearest single star
Astronomers have discovered a frozen planet with a mass over three times that of the Earth, orbiting the closest solitary star to the Sun. The potentially rocky planet, known as Barnard’s star b, is a ‘super-Earth’ and orbits around its host star once every 233 days, said researchers from Queen …
Read More »A research hub for antibiotics resistance
Denmark said on Thursday it would create an international research centre focused on the fight against resistance to antibiotics, a scourge affecting almost half a million people worldwide. Danish Health Minister Ellen Trane Norby signed a memorandum of understanding in Seattle, in the United States, with the international network of …
Read More »IKEA to turn pollution causing rice straws into products in India
In a bid to reduce global air pollution, Swedish home furnishing company IKEA on Thursday announced its plan to turn rice straw into a new renewable material source for its products. The project, part of the company’s ‘Better Air Now’ initiative, will begin from India and is focussed on New …
Read More »’Toxic’ declared Oxford Word of the Year
Oxford Dictionary has declared the adjective ‘toxic’ as the Word of the Year for what it says reflects the ethos, mood, or preoccupations in 2018. The word was selected from a shortlist that included ‘gaslighting,’ ‘incel’ and ‘techlash.’ The data showed that, after ‘chemical’, ‘masculinity’ is the most-used word in …
Read More »Searching for an elusive peace
Russia hosted a regional conference on Afghanistan last week to nudge the reconciliation process between the Taliban and the Afghan authorities. The Taliban were represented by the political council chief, Sher Mohammad Stanikzai. Representatives from Afghanistan, China, Pakistan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, the U.S. and India swere also …
Read More »2019: Is a grand opposition against the BJP possible?
The making of a coalition is no more a matter of choice for the parties opposed to the right-wing authoritarian postures of the BJP but a command from the common people. The churning on the ground among almost all social groups is exerting pressure on the Opposition parties to jettison …
Read More »Binani Cement: Dalmia Bharat moves SC against NCLAT order
The Dalmia Bharat Group has moved the Supreme Court challenging the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) order approving UltraTech Cements Rs. 7,950-crore bid for Binani Cement. Confirming the development, Mahendra Singhi, MD and CEO, Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Limited told The Hindu , “We have filed an appeal in the …
Read More »Sabarimala, and the quest for equality
The debate on opening the shrine to all women is revealing deep casteism and misogyny Sabarimala, it appears, could be our new touchstone for understanding liberals, especially from Kerala. The intellectual emptiness in the arguments of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and former Foreign Secretary Nirupama Menon Rao on the Sabarimala …
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